U.S. SHOOTS DOWN AN IRAQI WARPLANE IN NO-FLIGHT ZONE

A United States F-16 shot down an Iraqi warplane today after Iraqi jets breached a zone in southern Iraq, the Defense Department said.

The incident, which American officials described as an apparent test of American resolve in the region, was the first time that an Iraqi plane had been downed since the United States banned Iraqi flights south of the 32d parallel in August to protect Shiite Muslims there from air attacks by President Saddam Hussein's forces.

The United States allowed the Iraqis to send a rescue helicopter to the crash site, 20 miles south of the 32d parallel. But no parachute was observed, and the pilot of the Iraqi jet is not believed to have survived. Signs of Iraqi Impatience

The downing of the Iraqi plane, which officials believe was a MIG-25, came amid signs that Iraq is chafing under restrictions imposed after the Persian Gulf war ended in March 1991 and is trying to see whether the United States and its allies are still determined to enforce them.

President Bush, who was beginning a brief vacation in Texas, said he had been told that the Iraqi move "might be some test of our will near the end of my Presidency," and he added that he was determined to enforce United Nations resolutions.

Iraq took an unrepentant stance. "We reserve for ourselves the right to reply to this aggression in the appropriate manner and at the appropriate time," an Iraqi military spokesman said in a Baghdad radio broadcast. Flight Ban Rejected

Underscoring Baghdad's rejection of the flight ban, the Iraqi spokesman said the combat jet was shot down while on patrol "over our national soil and within our boundaries."

State Department and United Nations officials accused the Iraqi authorities earlier this month of planting bombs on United Nations relief trucks bound for the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq and blowing them up. Iraq has also deployed a large number of ground troops near the Kurdish area and has been conducting exercises there in what appears to be an effort to intimidate the Kurds.

In other steps that have stirred concern in the Bush Administration, Iraqi officials recently sought to hide documents from a team of United Nations weapon inspectors, passing them out the window while the inspectors were in another room, United States officials said today. The Iraqis have also delayed moving police posts from territory that a United Nations commission has determined belongs to Kuwait.

A senior Administration official said the United States would probably send an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf in response to the plane incident. An American carrier had recently been shifted from the gulf to waters off Somalia to support the American military operation to deliver food relief there.

In Little Rock, Ark., President-elect Bill Clinton waited until Mr. Bush issued his statement before releasing a brief, carefully worded expression of support for the "efforts to bring Iraq into compliance."

"This is part of a series of tests of international resolve to bring Iraq in compliance with the United Nations resolutions," Mr. Clinton said in the written statement. "Saddam Hussein is mistaken if he believes the United States or the United Nations lacks that resolve." Incident Is Detailed

American officials said the incident began at 10:20 A.M. local time when two Iraqi planes flew south of the 32d parallel, which marks the northern boundary of the air exclusion zone.

Two American F-15C planes approached and asked the Iraqis to identify themselves, and the Iraqi planes turned around and flew north.

Twenty minutes later, another pair of MIG's flew south of the 32d parallel. An American official said those two planes were believed to have taken off from the Iraqi air base at Al Kut, just north of the 32d parallel.

This time, the Iraqi planes were approached by a pair of American F-16's, which warned them by radio to leave the area. But when the Iraqi planes turned toward the American planes instead of flying away, the F-16's asked an Awacs battle-management plane flying over Saudi Arabia for permission to fire, in accordance with classified rules of engagement, American military officials said.

One of the F-16 planes then fired an Amraam air-to-air missile, which struck the Iraqi plane.

It is the first time that the radar-guided missile has been used in combat. The Amraam's cost more than $500,000 each and have had a long and difficult engineering history.

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After the plane was shot down, the other Iraqi plane headed north. Military officials said initial intelligence reports indicated that one of the Iraqi planes involved in the confrontation with the American jets had fled to Iran, which was a haven for Iraqi combat planes during the gulf war.

American officials said that with attention in Washington turned to Somalia, a combat flight ban in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the transfer of power to a new Administration, they viewed the incident as a deliberate move by Iraq to test the willingness of the United States to back up its warnings with force.

The Iraqis may also have been emboldened by the recent withdrawal of some of the American aircraft that have been used to enforce the ban on Iraqi flights south of the 32d parallel. The aircraft carrier that had been in the Persian Gulf to help enforce the ban, the Ranger, was sent to waters off Somalia this month at the request of the United States Central Command when Marine and Army troops were sent to the eastern African nation to safeguard the delivery of relief supplies. It has since been sent back to the United States from Somalia and replaced by the Kitty Hawk.

The shifting of a carrier to the Somali coast marked the first time since the gulf war that an aircraft carrier had been absent from the gulf region for several weeks, and the decision stirred debate in the Pentagon.

The Air Force has also reduced the number of planes it has stationed in Saudi Arabia to enforce the flight ban. It now has about 60 warplanes there, according to military officials. The precise number is classified.

Because of Saudi sensitivity on the issue, the Administration will not publicly confirm that American warplanes are based in Saudi Arabia. But American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that American fighter jets are based in Dhahran, that American refueling planes are stationed at a base near Hafr al Baten and that 8 to 12 American F-117 stealth fighters are deployed at Khamis Mushait, an air base near the Red Sea. British and French planes are also said to be based at Dhahran.

The commander of the joint task force that is enforcing the ban on Iraqi flights south of the 32d parallel is Maj. Gen. James F. Record, who is stationed in Saudi Arabia.

An American military official said the Pentagon had received some intelligence information suggesting that some Iraqi planes had recently crossed the 32d parallel when allied planes were not in the vicinity, setting the stage for the challenge today. He did not specify the nature of the evidence.

One option for increasing pressure on Iraq would be to extend the flight ban to all of Iraqi territory, officials said. But that proposal, which has been considered at the Pentagon, does not appear to be under consideration at the White House.

The general view among Administration officials seems to be that President Hussein was not looking for a major confrontation with the United States, though Washington has an uneven track record in forecasting Baghdad's intentions.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet this week to discuss Iraqi interference with the relief truck shipments to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Washington and senior United Nations officials believe that the United Nations trucks should be accompanied by armed guards.

In the months after the war to drive Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991, the allies imposed a ban on the flight of fixed-wing aircraft over all of Iraq. Several Iraqi planes were shot down when they ignored the ban. But the ban did not apply to helicopters, and the United States took no action when the Iraqi military used helicopters to attack Shiite Muslims soon after the war ended.

To protect the Kurdish minority, Washington later banned flights by all types of Iraqi aircraft north of the 36th parallel. And in a reversal of policy, this summer the Administration came to the aid of the Shiites by imposing a ban south of the 32d parallel.

Iraq took no immediate action to challenge the flight ban in the south, apparently fearing that Mr. Bush might use such action as a provocation to strike militarily at the Government of Mr. Hussein.

But in recent weeks, Iraq has acted in several ways to test the West and the United Nations, American officials said. The challenge today was "part of the pattern over the last several months of increasing Iraqi aggressiveness in challenging the U.N.," Robert M. Gates, the Director of Central Intelligence, said on the CBS News television program "Face the Nation."

American officials say the situation in Iraq -- along with efforts to slow Serbian aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to extract American forces from Somalia -- is likely to be one of Mr. Clinton's early challenges in foreign policy.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 28, 1992, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: U.S. SHOOTS DOWN AN IRAQI WARPLANE IN NO-FLIGHT ZONE. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe